BC employees and married couple become BC alumni

Teth and Chinara Milligan graduated in December with their BAS in Supervision and Management. The Milligans are also Broward College employees, who decided to start their educational journey together back in 2010 with their Associates degree.

“We grew up in Miami and everybody who we knew that went to Broward or worked here said that this was the place to work, and also the best community college,” said Teth.

Chinara, 36, and Teth, 35, have known each other since middle school. They started dating in 2003, and married four years later in 2007. They have a son and a daughter.

As BC employees, Chinara works at the Honors College, where she manages everything related to admissions, graduation, and more for the Honors students. Teth, on the other hand, works in facilities, where he manages inventory, planning, and regular maintenance tasks.

For the couple, their day starts at about 5 a.m. and ends at midnight. It usually includes dropping their youngest daughter at school, work, their own school, homework, on top of any other normal housekeeping tasks.

“There’s really no down time,” Teth admits.

Going into their educational journey, they knew it was going to be busy but that didn’t stop them. If anything, it made them work harder.

Sharing the school experience together, as a couple, helped them understand each other better.

“It allowed me to relate to her… Going to school myself definitely helped me understand her,” said Teth. “It’s cool because it allowed us to grow together.”

“It allows us to push each other,” said Chinara. “Just having that person there to help you and kind of understand what you’re going through is always a good thing to have.”

After going through their educational journey part-time, graduation is certainly something they grew to appreciate even more.

“It’s like breathing for the first time. Regardless of what I’ve been through, of how long it’s taken me, I did it, I accomplished it,” said Chinara.

“As a parent, I think that now my kids have no excuses because regardless of everything we’ve been through, we persevered and we graduated,” he said. “And as a student, it’s like ‘finally!’ There was this long goal that was set in place and that was achieved.”

But graduation is not the end. The Milligans plan to continue their educational journey to obtain their Masters.

“The sky isn’t even the limit, I’m just ready for bigger, better and greater and I have my best friend right there with me,” said Teth.